FACTS & TRUTHS

 

I just heard Professor Tim Snyder explain that, for democracy to survive and flourish, we need a common understanding of the facts and the truths they show us. Quite true.

And for that to happen, any society needs a vigorous self-critical component. Part of why Western societies and culture still dominate the globe is that the West's common culture may not have been born in the next thing I'll mention, but it was definitely fostered and nurtured in the creative tension between two highly self-critical societies. One (Athens) is characterized by rigorous empirical observation. The other (Jerusalem) is typified by its understandings of divine revelation.

Both societies were and are highly self-critical; I might almost say exceptionally so. The late Samuel Huntington commented; Western superiority primarily emanates from our superiority in organized violence--that is, our armed strength. But whence cometh that superiority but from our scientific primacy? And whence comes THAT but in our willingness to test new ideas and, thus, either make new tools OR adapt tools from elsewhere?

Our diversity and willingness to try what's new are strengths, not weaknesses. One real weakness we might have is forgetfulness of our societies' underpinnings--that is, we forget how rooted both in Scriptural understandings and empirical science we are!

I defy anyone to show me any society, at anytime, anywhere, that has a self-critical sector as vigorous as do Western societies and cultures. And yes, I admit that sometimes that sector is shortsighted sometimes and goes overboard in its criticism of its own mother cultures. And that it takes a liberal to admit that--most harmfully in its response to Israel's defending itself in this current war.

Any society's self-critical sector needs to defend the best in that culture while going at those parts of the culture which are actually hangovers from times not as 'enlightened' as our own and which contradict those things for which we say we stand!

At the same time, we dare not ('dasn't' for old-time Yankees) admit individuals from other societies who are dedicated to the destruction of ours. I support a wholesale expulsion of Islamists (not Muslims per se) from ALL Western nations! We can know them because, when we bring up their uncomfortable truths, they start 'screaming' in one way or another. We also have such truths, but some of us at least are working on them. Are their societies?

I don't think so!

Anyhow, as we prepare to vote, ponder this post, and beware of all those who duck from the light of truth, be they Islamists from elsewhere or our own native fascisti, whatever they call themselves!

Vote for she who does not duck from truth--Kamala and Tim!

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TRUTHS ABOUT DEMOCRACY & AUTOCRACY

 It seems like this is the time to write such a post as this.
Back during the tie of our revolution and what is now called our 'Federal' era, there was quite a bit of talk about comparing, to quote Sam Adams, 'the tranquillity of servitude to the animating contest of liberty'.
What it seems didn't occur to anyone was, servitude ain't tranquillity. I wrote such a post and titled it so; here is a link to it.
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1544353602029642191/8505401765231773381
And one thing even I didn't mention much was, how stressful it can be to 'dance attendance' on a thoroughly corrupted despot of either sex. Which is probably why many wise men and women kept away from princely courts and the like and were also often careful to stay out of the sight and hearing of such despots.
Now, democracy is by no means based on any Rousseauvian Enlightenment claptrap such as the Inherent Goodness of Humankind. We are nowhere near that good, and democracy knows this. Indeed, it's based on the sound ground that none of us corruptible bipeds deserve to be trusted with anything near absolute power and that, accordingly, power ought to be divided in such a way that no one has anywhere near more power than is good for them (or the rest of us) and, also, that no one is left without a voice and some chance to exercise it. This is true not only of mere political but also of economic and financial power; perhaps especially true of the last two types of power.
"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
This all-too-true saying was coined and popularized by the great Lord Acton, a mid-Victorian political luminary. In the past, we have assumed that the wealthy will be less open to corruption as they already have all the material benefits they may want. This has also proven to be only a partial truth. Yes, we have had such public-spirited rich folks as the Cecils, many of our Founders such as Washington, Jefferson and Madison and, later, the Roosevelts, Kennedys and (let's be fair) the Lodges and Cabots.
However, in recent years we have seem far too much of what Teddy Roosevelt justly called the 'malefactors of great wealth' who are indeed quite corrupted by the possession of too much wealth and too much power. Those such as Musk and Trump and the latter's supporters seem driven by a lust for absolute power, including a desire to bring feudalism into the 21st century USA!
While autocracy cherishes outward (and often phony and misleading) signs of religious devotion, democracy is actually essential for the growth and strengthening of true religion. In direct proportion to any faith being part of the governmental establishment anywhere, its religious fervor will be largely persecutorial and, thus, contrary to the will of God. Real faith is fostered in an atmosphere of liberty of conscience and only in that atmosphere!
Democracy also necessitates a number of things without which autocracy can muddle along and which it indeed fears and tries to suppress: first, a citizenry educated in the spirit of science and which seeks real truth, which has as little to do as possible with telling thugs what they and their toadies want to hear! And they never want both the good and bad of any story, never mind the ugly. (Wah-WAH-wah!) But all three elements, along with the beauty often created by the struggle between them, are necessary so that the good from history can be strengthened and the bad needn't be repeated. (Wah-WAH-wah-wah!)
Second, a press unafraid to ferret out corruption (which is just about necessary for autocracy!) among those entrusted with power by the public and still more among those possessed with great private power. We need a truth-in-reporting law and maybe a set of them!
Democracy is the only form of government capable of correcting its mistakes--and mistakes there will be, always, this side of Judgment, in any government. All of us are susceptible to corruption or just being badly informed; yes, myself included. Let's remember that even Jesus addressed a rich young man thus: "Why do you call me 'good'? There is none good but God."
But this should be no excuse for not trying to be good; we only need to remember that mistakes on our parts will be inevitable. And democracy gives us the means of correction. It can take a while but is far less dependent on the whims of we corruptibles than is autocracy.
And that is why we need anti-lobbying laws and publicly financed election campaigns too.
Some may think this a paradox, but it is no such thing in a system which needs truthful information to run well. We also need civil servants who know their actual jobs and who can explain in plain language, with a minimum of 'shop talk' (if any) how they serve We The People!
I feel a bit like I'm bouncing these points around; it may be that other fingers can articulate these matters better than this aging pale male. Still, I hope that this at least begins to make the case for the defense, preservation and, yea, the extension of democracy and the continual push-back against autocracy!
Remember something ol' Harry (Truman) once said: "If you want to live like a Republican, vote for the Democrats." Rarely was a truer word spoken, even by that blessedly blunt president.
I think in 1980, too many of us thought we were aristocrats and voted accordingly. We can never afford to forget how plebian nearly all of us are. Real aristocrats look after the real welfare of those lower down the ladder. They (we?) understand that, 'When we all do better, we all do better.'
Not to mention that, by removing the 'super' from 'super-rich', we actually help to save their precious souls from absolute corruption and them toppling over into the fiery Pit on the lip of which they walk! Seriously; think about it!

BEHIND WHICH EYES?

 As the Democratic ticket hangs between its choices, certain questions must be asked: of the thirty-some representatives and four senators begging Biden to withdraw, how many have significant racial minority populations in their districts? What are they afraid of? Do they think their soccer moms will either go the other way or stay home in November? Allow me to suggest that, if the party keeps the issues of reproductive choice, public education (for) and a vibrant economy alive, that happening gets less and less likely? Or are they afraid that the cash spigots from what are still probably mostly neo-liberal donors for them may dry up?
Or do their districts still have relatively large percentages of those pale males I call doughfaced dinkyjohnnies? How many 'shiny object' voters might these districts have who will respond more positively to someone who only looks and sounds 'commanding' but with no truth behind it as opposed to a commander who is sometimes not very commander-like, but who knows his/her business thoroughly and has used, and continues to use, that knowledge for the benefit of the people s/he serves?
Maybe we should push harder on that point. The representatives who serve districts with either high racial minority populations or even high proportions of struggling whites within the Democrats (looking at those Philly suburban districts which were red and are now blue) are still silent or, now, openly supportive of Biden/Harris. This ought not to be ignored; no block of voters is more loyal to or works harder for Democratic candidates across the ballot than politically engaged African-American women, especially (I guess) the church ladies among them.
There was once another Democrat at the top of the ticket who many 'pros' thought would go down in thumping defeat and they were terrified lest he should take the party with him. But he ran--and he won. And this was with defections on both the party's right and left! Anyone care to guess this man's name?
Harry S. Truman. Good ol' Harry.
And now we hear rumors that the 'Republicans' now want to force an outright resignation from Biden!
I think only Roger Daltrey and The Who have words for whence this noxious nonsense emanates!
Allow me to explain: the MAGAts, who now own and run the formerly Republican party, are lineal (mostly political) descendants of those who wanted ol' Milhous to fight to a finish and who probably bear a mighty grudge against onetime Establishment Republicans as well as nearly everyone else who ain't one of them! So, to The Who's lyrics from the song with the intriguing title of Behind Blue Eyes:

I have hours only lonely
My love is vengeance that's never free

Remember, vengeance is what Trump and indeed most MAGAts, now live for! And a few more interesting lyrics which stir the pot:

No one knows what it's like to be the bad man
To be the sad man behind blue eyes

And a little further on:

No one knows what it's like to feel these feelings
Like I do--and I blame you!


Do you understand? They blame us for their half-century of butthurt and they now seek any kind of revenge including forcing the resignation of a well-working Democratic president! And also they blame anyone else but themselves for something else. Back to Roger again:

No one knows what it's like to be hated
To be fated to telling only lies

FATED? Like hell, you doughfaced dinkyjohnnies! NO ONE is FATED to that! You--yes, YOU--have CHOSEN to be among the ones who, according to the Book of Revelation, 'loveth and maketh a LIE'
You have the power to turn and repent as have a growing number formerly among y'all--but yet you cling to the lies which act as walls between us all!
Well, let me tell y'all something: those to whom you've made yourself feel superior by hating them know very well how it feels to be hated for something about your person you cannot change! Nearly everyone with skin darker than raw dough knows how that feels, beginning with Jews and going right on through skin shades to Africans and those of African heritage in our common hemisphere!
And so your toxic bread which YOU have cast upon the waters comes back to you now! I am also a pale male and any patience I might have had for your butthurt whining is LONG gone! And Trump also lies to you when he says, it's all right to hate. Now you know the feeling you've inflicted on others and, Jaye (my late first wife), forgive me for using a phrase you never liked to hear from me--you are justly served!
Forgive this digression; I mean my point to be that, while the African-American community, especially the women, stand with Biden/Harris, so will I. It is they that uphold democracy, the rule of law and the truth in general most steadfastly and among whom big mouths with fat wallets and shiny-object chasers seem to have the least influence. And no group works harder for Democratic candidates up and down the ballot. And that those calling for Biden to withdraw are those least influenced by these worthy women. We cannot afford to mutilate their enthusiasm in the way some neo-liberals seem to want to do, because without that--it they stay home--we really are done for!

LADIES, FORWARD MARCH!

 Yesterday, I heard there was a new petition signed by above fourteen hundred African-American ladies which expressed a disinclination to have Biden step down from the nomination. I don't know what else that petition contains yet, but I've also heard a rumor or two that, behind the mostly elite clamor for that action, is the desire to remove Kamala from contention for the top spot.
I don't know about any other pale males, but this one smells a large white rat at this point.
On my dad's side, I come from the Southern white minority that were called 'scalawags' by the ex-planters during Reconstruction. The ex-planters called them that because they were willing and able to participate in the Reconstruction state governments which also included freed people and Yankee carpetbagger transplants. They were mostly independent farmers, artisans and shopkeepers who refused to use slave labor and whose voices had been muzzled in nearly all the slave states by 1840. That is, before the war.
If anyone reading these words cares to, y'all just try and convince this scalawag in his late sixties that something other than racism and sexism are in motion here!
I am only too used to party bigwigs, most of whom are still also pale males, living in terror of more doughfaced dinkyjohnnies skittering away from tickets headed by anyone other than a pale male who at least can convince others he's more than just another d.d. But now we must all ask ourselves, aren't most of our d.d.s already gone, either to MAGA or the next world? I mean, if Georgia--Georgia, for Pete's sake!--can elect Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock, albeit by squeaker margins, maybe we'd better re-examine our old assumptions!
If Biden really has to go, maybe it really is time for a Democratic ticket headed by Kamala and with, say, Governor Josh Shapiro or maybe Mark Kelly as her Number Two! If Georgia can elect both a Jew and an African-American as its U.S. senators, why not?
But I also strongly suggest that, nobody knows the answer to this, be it affirmative or negative, better than politically engaged African-American women. And I also strongly suspect that being one of their church's ladies also helps in this respect. Or, sometimes, even a rabbi. Tamar, could I possibly forget you? Jamais de ma vie!
Is any group of voters more loyal to the Democratic party than these good ladies? And who does more of the legwork for, spends more time on (including persuading others to vote and vote our way) campaigns for Democratic contenders at all levels of the ballot? And who contributes a growing proportion of campaign budgets to boot?
One mistake too many 'officers' make, in nearly any organization, is: they don't listen enough to the foot soldiers and the non-coms (or their counterparts)!PleasepleasePLEASE, let's not be making that hoary, ancient mistake yet AGAIN!I just heard some members of the CBC might be wavering; but this aging 'scalawag' will wait until the good African-American ladies--those most loyal of party members, who are probably the most hardworking, at least proportionally and who are the canniest pragmatists of voters themselves--speak out, one way or another.
These black pearls certainly have been in the background much too long, but it's not for me, nor any other pale male, to 'put them up where they belong' or to do anything but make way for them and welcome them to all our ranks, including the top ones! And this pale male, for one, waits your call!

A MESSAGE FOR A CRUCIAL FOURTH

    Fellow citizens, this is a crucial July 4th.
Either this will be the start of a rejuvenation of democracy or it will mark the last time the 4th was celebrated under a democracy for the foreseeable future.
The election still looks like it will be uncomfortably close. Not a good thing when one of the two major parties is openly fascistic and six 'justices' on the Supreme Kangaroo Court have begun the process of shaping a crown and sceptre, and mixing some decidedly unholy chrism, for the crowning and anointing of a King-Emperor.
Our fascists act as if they cannot but win, although they also know that if enough of you knew what they really intend, they'd be headed towards a public rendezvous with Madame!
Fascism is fueled by a sense of losing power and/or security of 'place' in society. The current fueling of Fascism began when Reagan started to sponsor greater and greater accumulation of wealth at the tippy-top of our society, with, initially, 'Christian' white nationalist words for those whose buying power was, and still is to some extent, shrinking. Now, in the wake of the election of the first African-American president and our hidden racial hysteria boiling over, those anti-Christians are now howling for blood which their Orange Julius Caesar has promised them they'll be able to shed with impunity if he wins.
Howling for the blood of uppity (fill in the blank, really, with racial, religious, sexually-oriented, and, yes, political designations as well. I'm an aging pale male, yet they'd be glad to have at me because I actually believe in equal justice under law, for example) whomevers!
The victory of the Democrats, and of democracy, needs to be as crushing as We The People can possibly make it! All of us, and everyone we can reach by any means, needs this message shared with them with this addition: fascists are bullies and the toadies of bullies. If you, a free American citizen, want to be part of the spirit of the Declaration whose adoption we celebrate today, you will vote straight Democratic on all levels from president on down to the lowest-level local officials! If you're a mewling toady of bullies, be they political, economic, social or anything else, then you're also a MAGAt!
Somehow, I think this approach might prove pretty effective!
If anyone brings up the recent debate, ask them: how can anyone debate when one party in the debate is throwing lies like a wheel of buckets can throw dirt (or s**t) unrelentingly? That's not an easy thing to do, is it?
MAGA cares nothing for fairness, nor for the truth: they don't even wish to serve you but to rule over you. And if their rule immiserates you, they take it as evidence they're succeeding!! They want to rule us all with the Rod of Iron they convince themselves that GAWD Himself has given them!
I am a believer myself, and I tell you that MAGAts are blasphemous liars in this and nearly all other matters except when they tell us who they really are!!
Who do you want at the ticket's top? A decent man who has served We The People for most of his adult life and who has proven himself quite able in the Oval Office, or a failed businessman, a rapist, an inheritor who lies as easily as he breathes and produced little else but chaos when he was president?
And are you free American citizens or subjects-in-waiting for a wannabe despot? If you're free citizens then vote straight Democratic this November and advise everyone you know to do likewise! Share this message with them and tell them that, if they want July 4, 2025, to be worth celebrating at all, we will crush fascism with our votes! Because if we don't, that date may not be worth celebrating at all. And that'll probably be true of July 4th for at least a generation.

AN ALL-PURPOSE PROGRESSIVE STEMWINDER?

 This is planned to be an all-purpose speech for our side. I'm not sure how long it will be but I'll do my best to keep it from being a stemwinder, that is, a speech that lasts too long.
Ronald Reagan once said, he wanted an America where anyone could get rich. Anyone?
What do all of you think of that? I want an America where anyone, including minimum wage workers, can earn a decent living.Where everyone can have enough nutritious and good-tasting food, a decent roof over their heads which can have a controlled temperature, be dressed decently, can actually retire and not have the threat of ruin hanging over our heads in the event of serious illness.
Which America do you think is closer to the Founders' vision? Let me give you a quote or two from those Founders which I hope will help:
"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of moneyed corporations, which....bid defiance already to the laws of this country."
And again:
"All the property that is necessary to the Preservation of the [Person] and the propagation of the Species is [a person's] natural right which none can deprive [them] of, but property superfluous to that Purpose is by right the property of the Public who by their laws have created it and, whenever the Public may so desire, may otherwise dispose of it."
Pretty revolutionary, no? What this Founder says is, we all have a right to as much resources as we need to maintain ourselves without unnecessary discomfort and to bring up (and educate?) a family in at least modest comfort, but more than that is by right the property of the public, that is, you, me and all of us!
I don't know about you, but it looks to me as if our Founders were not too keen on a country where  anyone could get rich by almost any legal, but mostly unethical, means. Which, I suggest to you, is what Ronnie and his puppet-masters wanted.
Again, I don't know about you but I have no desire to be a 21st century planter with thousands of effective slaves, although we don't call them that nowadays. But that is a legal fiction; all of the 78% of us who live from paycheck to paycheck know we can't afford to be without our jobs!
No, it would be enough for me to have a somewhat larger house with a fenced-in yard for our doggies and not have to pinch every penny till it screams. As a cook, I confess I would really love a large kitchen so I could make anything I wanted. I have no desire to 'live large' and I tend to dislike those to whom such a thing is important, but not because of jealousy. It is because those that do want that seem to believe they have some sort of divine mandate to rule the rest of us in the worst medieval style imaginable!
The great Lord Acton once said and/or wrote: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." In addition to the means of exchange, is wealth anything but power? And when you look at Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, the Koch family, the Prince/DeVos families, Wayne LaPierre, do you see anything in them that makes them fit to rule the rest of us? Or are they all absolutely corrupted by the power we the people have allowed them to stealthily seize, including their ability to own the 'Republican' party and all its representatives at nearly all levels? And make such inroads into the Democratic party as well?
It also looks as though the Gateses and uncle Warren (Buffett) at least make some efforts against being so corrupted themselves, but that might need further investigation.
I have nothing against there being those who are wealthier than the rest of us, but as Justice Brandeis wrote, "We can either have a few fabulously wealthy people, or we can have democracy, but we cannot have both." I agree. What about y'all?
If we tax correctly, the rich will still be rich. Just not rich enough to buy our government and all of us into the bargain! And when we all do better, well, we all do better. Even the rich do better in strictly numerical terms; they're just not as high above the rest of us as many want to be. Trump is their natural leader; most of them are greedy bullies dangerously close to absolutely corrupt!
And another benefit of taking away the 'super' from 'superrich': as they'll have less power, they'll be less corrupted! Think of it, fellow citizens! We may be saving their souls by taxing them properly, pulling them back from the mouth of the Pit where they currently saunter, foolishly believing themselves immune! Can I have some 'amens' from the crowd?
If you want a country closer to the Founders' hopes than those of a boughten Grade B washed-up ham, vote Democratic at all levels this November! Vote as progressively as you can while looking out for bad
actors (that is, haters of Israel and Jews) trying to use progressive causes as a stalking-horse.
Let's renew our country as a good place for all of us as we save the souls of the Pit-hung rich as well!
Oh well: I hope this reads well enough so that it doesn't feel like a stemwinder, at least!
The two quotations are, respectively, from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson in 1814 and one written by Dr. Benjamin Franklin to Robert Morris on December 25, 1783.

A VERY NECESSARY DISTINCTION

 Trump does not say to his cultists, 'Be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven'. He says, 'Don't be ashamed; your 'sins' are not sins. You can be as bigoted as you please and still be Good People'. That is a lie!
When Jesus said the first to the poor and the outcasts, I guess we're given to understand that being forgiven was supposed to give them strength and inspiration to mend their ways and leave their sins. Am I right? If I'm mistaken, please say so and tell me why.
At least, it seems I sort of assume that, although it could also be said that Jesus was telling his hearers that God knew what they were up against and how they were pressed into their sinful lives.
But tell me: What are bigots who seem to delight in trampling on others who have darker hair, eyes, skin, or whose faiths are expressed differently (aside from Christian Nationalists/Islamists) or have different sexual preferences and all of whom must bear the legacy of generations of such racism/sexism/etc against those more privileged--well, what, literally, in God's Name are these b*****ds up against? Having to share their wealth and power with others?
If this is a necessary component of democracy (and I believe it it) no wonder these lucky b*****ds are souring on it!
What Trump gives them is not the freedom to turn from their sins but the false assurance that they are not sinners! Oh, no! They are the best and most beautiful blue-eyed volks that ever was--such Good People, better than Jesus who 1)was probably dark-haired, eyed and skinned and 2) asked a rich young ruler "Why do you call me 'good'? There is none good save God."
It is important, I think, for those of us who make serious efforts to follow Jesus's teachings to distinguish between the two: Jesus's Good News and Trump's...well, his trumperies. Meaning his lies and deceits!
And no, I'm definitely not saying that everyone with light hair, eyes or skin are biped devils. But I do believe, by attaching undue importance to those articles--such as allowing them to determine who gets what, when and how--we can either lose a large chunk of our humanity or, if we go far enough, forfeit it entirely. I believe Hamas has gone that far and our neo-Nazis are right there with 'em!
We need to act on this as best we can as we work and vote to put Trump and his cult not six, but twelve, feet under with a stake through the space where a heart should be but isn't.